Single Carrier and Multi-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) communication systems, such as IFDMA, DFT-SOFDMA, and OFDMA communication systems, have been proposed for use in 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 Evolution communication systems for transmission of data over an air interface. In Single Carrier and Multi-Carrier FDMA communication systems, a frequency bandwidth is split into multiple contiguous frequency sub-bands, or sub-carriers, that are transmitted simultaneously. A user may then be assigned one or more of the frequency sub-bands for an exchange of user information, thereby permitting multiple users to transmit simultaneously on the different sub-carriers. These sub-carriers are orthogonal to each other, and thus intra-cell interference is reduced.
To maximize the spectral efficiency, a frequency reuse factor of one has been proposed for both a downlink and an uplink in Single Carrier and Multi-Carrier FDMA communication systems. With a frequency reuse factor of one, data and control channels in one sector/cell will likely experience interference from other sectors/cells. This is especially true for user equipment (UEs) at the edge of a cell or at bad coverage locations. Therefore, letting each UE in a sector or cell transmit at full power on the uplink results in very poor edge performance. On the other hand, implementation of a traditional power control scheme, wherein each UE in a sector or cell or cell transmits at an uplink power that results in a same received power at a radio access network for each such UE, suffers from a low overall spectral efficiency due to a lack of UEs that can transmit at high data rates.
Therefore, a need exists for resource allocation scheme that results in a better tradeoff between the cell-edge performance and the overall spectral efficiency.
One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common and well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.